There have been many prior proposals relating to such apparatus, but they have not achieved widespread use. It has been proposed hitherto to make use of a reservoir of balls which are presented one at a time to the player by means of a teeing mechanism. Examples of such arrangements are to be seen, for example, in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,081; U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,263; U.S. Pat. No. 3,298,694; U.S. Pat. No. 3,533,631; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,711,321.
Such mechanisms have practical disadvantages. Many are unduly complex and expensive, are not readily transportable, require frequent service or maintenance, suffer degradation of performance due to wear and tear of the elements, and require connection to external sources of power. Others are simpler but would be difficult or inconvenient to operate or would not provide long term reliable performance.